On December 25, on Erosi Manjgaladze Stadium in Samtredia, the Captain of Georgian National Football Team Kakha Kaladze organized an event under the aegis of “Kala Foundation”. In the course of the event 100 students of Samtredia football school, aged 9-16, were given presents: complete set of sporting clothes, training and playing pants, T-shirts, gaiters, warm coats, goal-keepers uniforms and gloves. All the trainers were also given corresponding clothes. It should be underlined that all the presents were made especially for Samtredia Football School by a famous Italian brand Errea. Many European teams play in T-shirts with the logo of “Errea”, including Italian teams Bari, Atalanta, Parma, Dutch team Den Hague, Belgian Chalreroi, Scottish Hibernian, Spanish Numancia and others. For Kakha Kaladze the above-mentioned event is not the first charity act. Recently Kala Foundation rendered financial support to 30 little patients of Gvamichava National Center of Oncology.

About 500 fans and the management of Samtredia football club looked forward to Kakha Kaladze’s visit in Samtredia. After talking with children, giving autographs and taking photos, Kakha Kaladze met the President of Samtredia football team Zaza Adeishvili and donated 10 000 USD to the club as a New Year present. However, Kaladze mentioned that nobody had forced him to commit this act of charity. He simply supports the local team, as Samtredia is his native town. People are fond of football in this town, but the problem is the lack of club infrastructure. To quote Kaladze, “people often ask me to help develop football in Samtredia. I would willingly assist them, but the team has neither a stadium nor a football base. So what can I do? I cannot start everything from the very beginning. Whatever I start, I go to the very end and get maximum results. However, the situation in contemporary Georgian football cannot be saved by one person only. State support is absolutely necessary. I think in every Georgian town e.g. Samtredia, Lanchkhuti, also districts like Achara and Samegrelo, European standard stadiums should be constructed within the framework of a State project. These stadiums should be constructed properly and last long. This is not only a PR campaign. In this way potential sponsors will appear and finance the teams. They will be interested to invest in national football.” Kakha kaladze formed ground for the establishment of the football school in Samtredia. He feels optimistic and says in his interview: “We have equipped young footballers with clothes. Now we work on the development of the entire structure. From the New Year things will start developing. Currently there is a site where the administrative building will be constructed soon. There the young footballers will have all the conditions to prepare for training and rest and change their clothes after training. Local footballers of Samtredia should have all the necessary conditions so that their willingness to go in for football does not decrease. Players invited from other cities will not be so patriotic of Samtredian team. Therefore, I am confident that the development of young footballers will form a strong foundation for the Big Football in future”.